A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to pellets for use as ammunition in air guns or gas guns.
B. Background
As conventional fire arm type weapons come under political attacks, air guns and gas powered guns are gaining in popularity. While air and gas powered guns have been widely used previously, they have not generally been effective for hunting and harvesting of game. The typical pellet loads in use today are of two types. Solid head pellets, which tend to overpenetrate without imparting a shock to the target. Conversely, the typical hollow point pellets compress too quickly, becoming clogged with animal fur, fat and skin, which tends to cushion against the shock to the adjacent soft tissue.
Other attempts have been made to solve these problems providing pellets made of plastics, resulting in limitations on the range and shock force.
A polymeric ballistic tip pellet for use as ammunition in an air or gas powered gun is disclosed. The ballistic tip pellet comprises a frusto-conical skirt portion with a hollow tapering cavity, and an annular terminus having maximum diameter complimentary to the inner bore of a gun barrel. A head portion is connected to the skirt portion. Head portion has attached thereto a sharply pointed, conical tip formed from a hard polymeric material which is attached to a base portion intermediate said tip and said skirt portion. A means is provided for attaching the tip to the base portion. Skirt portion is coaxial with the head portion and the tip. The head portion and skirt portion are joined at a plane parallel to the plane of said annular terminus and perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of said pellet; such that when placed inside a hollow bore an air-gun barrel, the skirt portion serves as an air foil to seal an impulse of compressed air or gas between inner bore walls and the compressed air source to propel said pellet in an accurate, high velocity, generally flat trajectory through the discharge end of the gun barrel directed towards a predetermined target.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a pellet for use in an air gun with a hard polymeric tip which does not deform on contact.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a pellet for use in an air gun which cleanly penetrates animal fur, fat and skin to impart a shattering force upon contact with bone.
Another object is to provide a pellet for use in an air gun which clears a path for a hollow head of an attached pellet to facilitate delivery of massive shock to bone and tissue.
It is a further object of the present invention to reduce the weight of a pellet while simultaneously increasing the penetrating force delivered to the quarry.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an increased range of accuracy and enable a wider target area on an animal.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a variety of pellet configurations, each having a hard polymeric tip for greater penetration and increased force.